The Twingo arrives!

 The last blog finished on the question, how did it go?

Well, considering I’d never met the car, the car dealer or the exporter it went much smoother than I expected.

The CMR note issued by Transporting Wheels satisfied the relevant customs checks; and the car arrived in Essex on the Saturday morning. Unfortunately the CRO Port operation closes at 6pm on a Saturday and the delayed UK transporter missed the collection window resulting in a wasted trip. A 2nd attempt on Monday was success and the car arrived with me in Bristol at 1pm.

Collecting the car was very simple; each car has a unique reference and PIN like shipping containers do and this number was supplied by Gerdo well in advance of the car arriving.

I’m very lucky that my work has a large private site; and so the car is stored off the public highway. It left Holland without export plates and its original number plates had to be removed.

So, do I regret it?   Not so far, the Twingo looks very much like it is an original example. Sure it has lead a life in Holland and has 208000km (roughly 131000 miles) on the clock but the interior is complete. Externally the pearlescent paintwork looks reasonably fresh, it seems dry inside and it has moved around the site at work without any worrying issues. There is a bit of rust on the external sill joins, but nothing to get too worried about I hope. One wheel arch also has a few blisters but again nothing too bad. These can be the focus of a tidy up when time permits. There is a dent in the OS wing which I knew about on purchase, again given time this can be resolved.



I am sure I have been lucky to this stage given all of the variables in play, careful research has paid dividends here and if reading this blog is convincing you to do the same as I did; make sure you do the same research.

I’m now into the complex world of acquiring a UK registration; there are a number of hoops to jump through.

Firstly, I’ve had to declare the car to HMRC so that all relevant duty (VAT) can be paid, this is done via an online service. As I’m not a trader and not registered for VAT it was done with a form C384 which I downloaded from the GOV.UK website. This is completed by hand but has to be emailed to the HMRC who then calculate the VAT due. Filling out the form was fairly easy including copies of the transporter invoice and sales invoice; and I had a same day response to tell me I owed £94 VAT on the car. This has been paid and I await the NOVA document to go with my application to register the car.

As the car is over 10 years old, there is no need to provide any type approval documentation so I’ve not got to apply for this. This will certainly speed things up.

The next step is to get the car ready for a UK MOT test; two issues exist with a LHD car and both concern the lighting:

1)      LHD headlight beams aim the wrong way; so I need to fit beam deflectors adapted for a LHD car. Beam deflectors in most motor accessory shops are tailored to RHD vehicles driving on the continent so are no good. A quick search revealed that Travelspot supply just the very product in their Eurolite range and they were quickly despatched to me.

2)      UK lighting regulations require the rear foglight to be either centrally mounted; or mounted on the offside of a vehicle. The Twingo has it’s foglight on the wrong side for the UK. The solution for this is an aftermarket spotlight with bracket, which I will wire into the existing foglight feed from the rear lights. This was £8 from the local independent motor factors near me.

I will be giving the car a good check over; and hopefully nothing serious in it’s mechanical or structural condition that prevents the car being submitted for an MOT test as soon as the above modifications are completed.

Once I have the NOVA and MOT certificate; the process of completing a V55/5 form and sending off to the DVLA who will hopefully issue the car with a relevant age related registration from it’s unallocated stock. My car dates from January 1997 so will qualify for a P prefix registration (Aug 1996-July 1997).

Watch this space.

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